Learnings From A Month in Japan - by Jibraan Kadri

I spent the past month living in Tokyo. I was staying at a "hacker house" – a shared house full of young entrepreneurs trying to build generational companies. The trip was intended to be a vacation and also a place to lock in on some of my side projects and build cool stuff. Instead, I found myself watching a country that felt stuck in time. The more I understood, the less sense it made. This is a story about a country perfecting its own decline. The thing that screws with your head about Japan is that everything works really well. The trains come within 15 seconds of when they're supposed to. Every time. The convenience stores have basically anything you'd need, and they're open 24/7. Kids walk to school alone because it's that safe. Even the public toilets are technological marvels. At first, I thought the 24/7 convenience stores were amazing. You could get anything at any time – fresh onigiri at 3am, decent coffee, full meals. The vending machines on every corner selling everything

I spent the past month living in Tokyo. I was staying at a "hacker house" – a shared house full of young entrepreneurs trying to build generational companies. The trip was intended to be a vacation and also a place to lock in on some of my side projects and build cool stuff. Instead, I found myself watching a country that felt stuck in time. The more I understood, the less sense it made. This is a story about a country perfecting its own decline. The thing that screws with your head about Japan is that everything works really well. The trains come within 15 seconds of when they're supposed to.